MLB: Revere, Phillies win 7-3, earn split with Cardinals

Philadelphia Phillies' Erik Kratz, right, rounds the bases past third base coach Ryne Sandberg after hitting a three-run home run during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals, Sunday, April 21, 2013, in Philadelphia. Philadelphia won 7-3. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

PHILADELPHIA — When the Phillies needed Ben Revere to just get a ball somewhere to the outfield in the sixth inning to take a lead Sunday night, he grounded into an inning-killing double play.

When the Phillies and Revere were in the same situation in the eighth inning, the result was slightly different.

Revere, who has had a hot glove but cold bat, lined a one-out single to center off Mitchell Boggs to score Domonic Brown, then Erik Kratz followed with a booming three-run blast to left, as the four-run eighth helped the Phillies (8-11) prevail, 7-3, and forge a four-game series split with the Cardinals.

“I talked to all our coaches,” Charlie Manuel said of Revere prior to his sixth-inning at-bat, “and we all said he’s hard to double up, and then he hit the ball sharply to the shortstop for a double play.

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“But then he comes back in the same situation, and I figured, hell, if I let him hit in that situation in the sixth, I’m letting him hit here.

“If he hit into two double plays I would’ve been upset, of course.”

It was a therapeutic finish for both Revere and Brown, both of whom were hearing it in the outfield from fans growing ornery because of the team’s slow start. Brown, who missed a couple of games with a sore back after an ill-fated dive for a ball, had a wounded duck in the fourth inning fall in front of him.

Maybe a dive would have given him a shot to catch it, probably not. But Brown heard about it for not attempting to dive, regardless of the intelligence of doing so.

“Any time the fans get on you, that’s their prerogative,” Kratz said if reference to Brown, who in addition to starting the eighth-inning rally with a hit drew a tough walk in the sixth. “It’s how you deal with it, how you come back the next time. You have to go with the flow, and he stuck with his approach and that’s what got him those good ABs later in the game.

“I don’t know if he should’ve caught it or not. I’m not an outfielder, and you don’t want to see me in the outfield. But there’s something I know: D-Brown will always give all of his effort. I’ve played with him now for three years, and there’s no doubt in my mind. He can be on the field with me any day.”

Revere’s grief was more understood when he grounded into the twin-killing. Then again, neither did anything as bizarre as Chase Utley.

For the second straight night Utley had a very un-Utley moment. A day after oddly breaking right when a ground ball was hit to his left, causing the Cardinals to get a pair of insurance runs in a 5-0 win, he short-circuited the Phillies’ first-inning rally with a base-running blunder.

After Kyle Kendrick gave up a run in a long top of the first, the Phillies got after St. Louis starter Jake Westbrook in the opening inning, with Jimmy Rollins opening the bottom of the first with a triple. John Mayberry Jr. followed with a walk, and Utley saddled Westbrook with his first earned run allowed this season when he singled home Rollins. Ryan Howard followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-1, with Utley tagging and getting to second on the deep drive to center.

Apparently Utley scrambled something on the way to the bag, because when Michael Young hit a routine fly to left, Utley broke for third as if there were two outs. Instead, the Cardinals got an easy double play thanks to that brain cramp.

“You might never see that again,” Manuel said.

The Cardinals tied it in the top of the sixth against Kendrick, who despite throwing 47 pitches in the first two innings managed to make a quality start. In the top of the seventh Antonio Bastardo got in trouble after an Utley throwing error and a walk. It was bigger trouble when Chad Durbin came in to pitch out of the jam. Durbin had allowed all seven inherited runners this season to score. That streak ended ... but one still crossed the plate on Allen Craig’s single that put the Cards up, 3-2.

Laynce Nix got that run back in the bottom of the seventh when Laynce Nix scored Kratz from first with a pinch-double to left-center.